Logo or brand identity: what are you buying?
A logo is one mark. A brand identity is the system around it: the colours, the typefaces, the graphic elements, the photo style and the rules that keep all of them consistent.
A logo alone works for a small business with few touchpoints. A company that prints packaging, runs social media, fits out branches and advertises needs the full system. Without it, each designer who touches the brand guesses, and the brand slowly drifts.
Before you ask for quotes, decide which one you need. It is the main reason two proposals for "a logo" look so different in scope and cost.
What should a complete brand identity include?
Ask each agency to list the deliverables in writing. A complete identity usually covers:
- Strategy: who the brand is for, what it stands for and how it should feel.
- Naming, if the company or product does not have a name yet.
- The logo, with its versions: full, short, icon, one colour, and on light and dark backgrounds.
- Colour palette, with exact values for print and screen.
- Typefaces in Arabic and Latin that work together.
- Graphic elements, patterns and photo or illustration style.
- Applications: social media templates, stationery, packaging, signage or uniforms, as your business needs.
- Brand guidelines: one document that shows how to use all of the above.
Why must Arabic and English be designed together?
Most brands in Kuwait appear in Arabic and English, often side by side on the same sign or post. If the Arabic is added after the Latin logo is approved, it often looks like a translation: wrong weight, wrong width, wrong rhythm.
Ask to see the Arabic and Latin versions of each concept from the first round. Check them at small sizes, such as a profile picture, and at large sizes, such as a shop front.
Check the typefaces too. A good Arabic and Latin pair makes long text, menus and social posts look like one brand in two languages.
How do you brief a branding agency?
A clear brief gets you better concepts and quotes you can compare. Keep it to one or two pages:
- Your business: what you sell, to whom and where.
- The reason for the project: a new company, a new product, a merger, or a brand that no longer fits.
- Your customers, and what you want them to feel when they see the brand.
- Two or three competitors, and why you want to look different from them.
- Every place the brand will appear, from social media to signage.
- What must stay, if anything: a name, a colour, a symbol.
- Your timeline and a budget range.
How do you compare branding agencies and proposals?
Look for identity systems, not single logos. In each portfolio piece, check whether you can see the logo working on packaging, signage, social media and print.
Ask about the process. A sound process moves from research and strategy to concepts, refinement and guidelines. Ask how many concepts you will see and how many rounds of changes are included.
Compare the deliverables line by line. One proposal may include guidelines, templates and Arabic typography. Another may stop at the logo files.
Ask who owns the work. On final payment, the rights to the approved identity and its source files should move to your company. Put it in the contract.
Check the name and mark before launch. Ask a trademark specialist to check that the name and logo can be registered in Kuwait and in the other markets you plan to enter.
What drives the cost of a brand identity?
Two quotes for a brand identity can differ a lot, and both can be fair. The difference is almost always in the scope, so ask each agency to price the same list.
Use this list to read a quote, line by line:
- Research and strategy: interviews, workshops and a competitor review, or none.
- Naming: a new name needs research, checks and more rounds.
- The number of concepts in the first round, and the rounds of changes after it.
- Arabic and Latin lettering drawn for the brand, or set in existing typefaces.
- The number of applications: a few social templates, or a full set of packaging, signage and print.
- Guidelines: a short sheet, or a full document your team and suppliers can work from.
What should you receive at the end?
At hand-over you should receive the logo in every version, in vector files for print and in image files for screens. You should also receive the colour values, the typeface names with their licences, the templates and the guidelines.
Ask for a short hand-over session with your marketing team and your printers. A brand stays consistent when the people who use it every day know the rules.
What happens after the new identity is approved?
Plan the roll-out before the launch. List every place the old brand appears: accounts, website, branches, vehicles, uniforms and printed stock. Decide what changes on day one and what changes over time.
Social media profiles and templates are usually first, because they are seen most and cost least to change. Signage and printed material often follow in stages.
If you are changing an existing brand rather than making a new one, read our guide on rebranding an established company: it covers what to keep and what to change.
See the work
Frequently asked questions
How long does a brand identity project take?
It depends on the scope: naming, the number of concepts, the rounds of changes and the applications. Ask each agency for a written timeline per stage, from research to guidelines.
Do I own the logo and the files?
You should. Agree in the contract that the rights to the approved identity and its source files move to your company on final payment.
Should the logo be in Arabic and English?
For most brands in Kuwait, yes. Design both versions together from the first concepts, so the Arabic does not look like a translation of the Latin logo.
What are brand guidelines?
One document that shows how to use the logo, colours, typefaces and graphic elements, with examples. It keeps your team, printers and agencies consistent.
Does Prismic Media design brand identities in Kuwait?
Yes. Our branding work covers naming, identity design, brand facelifts and brand guidelines.
About Prismic Media
Prismic Media is a creative and marketing agency in Kuwait City, part of Maqam Holdings. Since 2015, our team of 30+ has made brands, campaigns, social media content, video, music and events for brands in Kuwait.